Refillable fire extinguisher

ABSTRACT

A fire extinguisher or the like spraying apparatus wherein a mechanically resistant container is adapted to receive through its upper or lower end a cartridge made of a sheet showing no great mechanical resistance and enclosing a refill mass of material to be sprayed and/or a bottle of compressed gas the container being provided with means for perforating the bottle whether inside the cartridge or adjacent the latter inside the container. The gas pressure when released causes the diaphragms to burst, allowing the escape of the mixture to be sprayed, to burst. A fire extinguisher of this type can be refilled speedily several times in succession.

[ Mar. 21, 1972 [541 REFILLABLE FIRE EXTINGUISHER [72] Inventor: Frederic Sachs, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France Compagnie Centrale Sicli Societe Anonyme, Seine Saint-Denis, France [22] Filed: Aug; 18, 1970 [21] App]. No.: 64,686

[73] Assignee:

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Aug. 20, 1969 France "6928523 July 17, 1970 France ..7026356 [52] U.S. Cl ..169/3l P, 222/82, 239/309 [51] Int. Cl ...A62c 13/40 [58] Field of Search ..-..l69/30, 31; 239/309, 373;

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,159.311 12/1964 Fowler ..222/82 3,251,420 5/1966 Rodgers 2,430,470 11/1947 Keefe, Jr. et a] ..169/3l P 2,684,180 7/1954 Allen ..l69/3l X 2,823,832 2/1958 Potter..... ...222/83.5 X 2,899,106 8/1959 Weinert ..222/83.5 X

FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 342,196 l/l93l Great Britain 169/31 Primary Examiner-M. Henson Wood, .lr. Assistant Examiner-Michael Y. Mar Attorney-Pierce, Scheffler & Parker [57] ABSTRACT A fire extinguisher or the like spraying apparatus wherein a mechanically resistant container is adapted to receive through its upper or lower end a cartridge made of a sheet showing no great mechanical resistance and enclosing a refill mass of material to be sprayed and/or a bottle of compressed gas the container being provided with means for perforating the bottle whether inside the cartridge or adjacent the latter inside the container. The gas pressure when released causes the diaphragms to burst, allowing the escape of the mixture to be sprayed, to burst. A fire extinguisher of this type can be refilled speedily several times in succession.

2 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures Patented March 21, 1972 I5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Patented March 21, 1972 I5 Sheets-Sheet 2 lllll'l'llllllll" ulllull-II' III ll l ll-ll 3 I 1 5mm 1 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 JU 9 m Patentad March 21, 193 2 The present invention covers refillable fire extinguishers.

Generally speaking, in such apparatus, the refilling requires some knowledge, care and time, so that it is not practically possible to use several times following the same fire extinguisher.

There exists already on the market fire extinguishers operating with a cartridge of a small capacity, the body of which carries the extinguishing product, while the auxiliary pressureproducing bottle is secured readily on the head of the extinguisher through a bayonet joint. Such an extinguisher allows an easy refilling, but it is applicable only to small apparatus. As a matter of fact, the application of a similar principle becomes too expensive for extinguishers of a somewhat large capacity, since the refill cartridge must be constituted by a casing forming the actual container for the extinguisher and must pass favorably through the official tests checking its resistance to pressure.

The present invention has for its object to cut out the abovementioned drawbacks of the refilling and it allows resuming operation in a practically instantaneous manner by means of refills, while the handling of the actual product is avoided and the refills are cheap since they are not subjected to tests governed by regulations.

The fire extinguisher, being of the type including a bottle containing fluid under pressure and/or a product adapted to be conveyed by said fluid, is provided according to the invention with a container, adapted to resist the fluid pressure and of which the upper or lower wall is removable and may be speedily secured in position, and with a removable cartridge the walls of which show only a reduced resistance and which carries a spare fluid bottle and/or a refill of the product to be sprayed, said cartridge being introduced into the container as a substitute for an exhausted cartridge, so as to provide for a reloading of the apparatus.

Said cartridge, made of a light material such as a sheet of metal, plastics, cardboard or the like, carries advantageously the extinguishing product and if required a bottle of compressed gas. It carries furthermore a washer of a reduced resistance so as to allow the extinguishing mixture to escape when subjected to pressure. The subjection to pressure is provided through the agency of a hand-actuated projection in registry with the handle.

According to a modification, the container is provided with a removable bottom, while the cover of the cartridge is perforated through or near its washer or washers at the moment of the positioning of the cartridge in the container while a protecting diaphragm extends over the open ends of the pipes dipping inside the cartridge, whereby the flow of the extinguishing product outside the cartridge is prevented, said diaphragm bursting at the moment at which the apparatus is subjected to pressure.

The invention will now be described with further detail, reference being made to the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is an elevational view, partly torn off, of a refillable fire extinguisher wherein the cartridge carries a bottle of compressed gas.

FIG. 2 is a similar view of a further embodiment of a refillable fire extinguisher wherein the bottle of compressed gas is not fitted inside the cartridge.

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic partly sectional view of a modified embodiment.

Turning to FIG. 1, the fire extinguisher includes a container 1 with a removable head 2 adapted to be readily secured to the container through the hinges 3 on one side and a hook 4 on the other side. A projection 5 is adapted to strike the bottle of compressed gas. Said projection is controlled through the ring-shaped handle 6 which is caused to pivot round a stationary point. Inside the container, there is housed a refill 9 carrying the extinguishing product together with a bottle 11 of compressed gas fitted in an auxiliary housing 13. A washer of a lesser resistance is carried at the upper end of the tube 12 dipping inside the cartridge and through which the extinguishing mixture is to pass out of the cartridge before it flows out through the hose 7 forming an extension of the tube 2 up to the nozzle 3 controlling the output.

The operation of the fire extinguisher illustrated is as follows:

Assuming a cartridge is positioned inside the container 1, it is sufficient to draw out the ring 6 so as to control the impact of the projection 5 against the bottle 11 which is thus perforated whereby the compressed gas is released and fills-the cartridge 1. If the side walls of the cartridge are not'sufficiently resistant, they are urged against the wall of the container 1 without this modifying by any means the characteristic properties of the fire extinguisher during operation. The washer 10 is perforated by the actual pressure of the extinguishing mixture which passes through the tube 12, the hose 7 and the nozzle 8 provided with a manual control of the output.

When the fire extinguisher is empty, the hook'4 is released and the head 2 is rocked round its hinges 3, after which it is an easy matter to change the cartridge and to close again the apparatus which is thus ready to operate again. The fire extinguisher thus refilled almost instantaneously may serve for fighting a same fire as many times as there are refill cartridges available.

In the case of FIG. 2, an auxiliary gas-filled bottle 1 is pro vided within the housing 13 of the container 1. Said bottle is capable of supplying a number of gas jets through the agency of a rod 14 upon application of the projection 5 against its upper end. The rod perforates a washer 15 of a lesser resistance covering the refill cartridge 9.

By way of example, if a load of extinguishing powder requires 60 grs. of carbon dioxide for it to be completely expelled outside the apparatus, it is possible to resort to a bottle carrying 500 grs. of gas, which allows it to operate with a fire extinguisher carrying 6 kgs. of extinguishing powder eight times following.

The invention provides a considerable advantage in the case of corrosive extinguishing products since it is possible to produce refill cartridges enclosed within a cover resisting corrosion, whereby the life of the apparatus is extended since its different parts are no longer in direct contact with the extinguishing product.

In the two embodiments illustrated, the cartridge is introduced through the upper end of the apparatus, the head 2 of the apparatus being adaptedto pivot for this purpose, but obviously the invention is by no means limited to such a special embodiment of the head which may be rigid with the body of the container, in which case the bottom of the container is adapted to rock so as to allow the cartridge to be introduced through the lower end of thecontainer.

This is illustrated in FIG. 3 wherein the bottom 16 of the container 1 is removable. The refill cartridge 9 can thus be introduced through the lower end of the container and the washer, showing a lesser resistance and provided at its upper end as shown at 10, is broken through by tube sections 18 and 19 provided in the cover of the fire extinguisher rigid with the body thereof.

The tube 12 extending into the bottom of the container is closed at its lower end by a diaphragm 17 made of paper, metal foil or plastics so as to be capable of being torn open automatically as soon as the apparatus is set under pressure. Thus the product carried by the cartridge can flow out only after such a setting under pressure.

The bottle 11 carrying the propelling gas is also fitted inside a tube 13 while the projection 5 is adapted to strike said bottle to open it. In registry with the striker projection 5, the tube 13 is provided with openings which are also advantageously covered by diaphragms similar to the diaphragm 17.

In the case where the bottle is not carried within the refill cartridge, the tube 13 carrying the bottle is narrower and acts as a gas diffuser within the cartridge; the gas diffusing ports provided at the lower end of the bottle are also advantageously covered by a diaphragm.

The invention is particularly applicable to fire extinguishers but is by no means limited to such a particular application and it may be applied to any apparatus including a bottle of compressed gas which is to be replaced when empty,-for instance in the case of siphons, atomizers operating through compressed air and the like.

What I claim is:

l. A spraying apparatus, chiefly a fire extinguisher, comprismg aicontainer adapted to resist the pressure of the mixture to be sprayed and provided with an opening at one end;

a cover adapted to be snapped into position over said openll'lg;

means through which a mixture to be sprayed may be projected out of the apparatus;

provision of product to be sprayed;

a bottle of compressed gas said compressed gas being adapted to be conveyed when released onto said product to form a mixture therewith, means through which the mixture thus formed is urged out of the container into the projecting means, said provision and bottle being carried inside the container;

a cartridge including a frangible cover and enclosing both said provision of product and said bottle, said cartridge being adapted to enter the container through said openmg;

and means carried by the container adapted to puncture said frangible cover and strike the bottle to release the gas therein.

2. The apparatus defined in claim 1, wherein the provision of product is carried inside the cartridge, and wherein the means through which the mixture is urged out of the container includes at least one tube, extending vertically between the bottom of the provision of product and the upper end of the cartridge, together with a cover for the end of said tube adapted to burst uponapplication of pressure so as to connect said lower end of said provision with the inside of the container through the upper end of the tube.

t i l K 

1. A spraying apparatus, chiefly a fire extinguisher, comprising a container adapted to resist the pressure of the mixture to be sprayed and provided with an opening at one end; a cover adapted to be snapped into position over said opening; means through which a mixture to be sprayed may be projected out of the apparatus; provision of product to be sprayed; a bottle of compressed gas said compressed gas being adapted to be conveyed when released onto said product to form a mixture therewith, means through which the mixture thus formed is urged out of the container into the projecting means, said provision and bottle being carried inside the container; a cartridge including a frangible cover and enclosing both said provision of product and said bottle, said cartridge being adapted to enter the container through said opening; and means carried by the container adapted to puncture said frangible cover and strike the bottle to release the gas therein.
 2. The apparatus defined in claim 1, wherein the provision of product is carried inside the cartridge, and wherein the means through which the mixture is urged out of the container includes at least one tube, extending vertically between the bottom of the provision of product and the upper end of the cartridge, together with a cover for the end of said tube adapted to burst upon application of pressure so as to connect said lower end of said provision with the inside of the container through the upper end of the tube. 